BATON ROUGE, La. – Seven former LSU Tigers will appear on Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) Opening Day rosters for the league’s 2026 season, which begins Tuesday, June 9.
The AUSL enters its second season with six teams competing in dedicated home markets for the first time. Aliyah Andrews and Savanna Jaquish are members of the reigning 2025 AUSL Champion Utah Talons. Ciara Briggs, Danieca Coffey, and Jalia Lassiter are on the Texas Volts roster, while Carley Hoover and Ali Newland will compete for the Portland Cascade, one of two AUSL expansion franchises this season.
Opening Day will feature three series-opening matchups. The Portland Cascade will face the Carolina Blaze at 4 p.m. CT at Smith Family Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, with coverage on CBS. The Texas Volts will take on the Oklahoma City Spark, the league’s second expansion franchise, at 6 p.m. CT at Tom Heath Field in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, airing on ESPN2. The evening concludes with the Chicago Bandits visiting the Utah Talons at 8 p.m. CT at Dumke Family Softball Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, televised on ESPN2.
The AUSL regular season concludes Monday, July 20, before postseason play begins Thursday, July 23, at Davis Diamond in College Station, Texas. The No. 2 and No. 3 seeds will meet in a play-in game at 8 p.m. CT on July 23, with the winner advancing to face the league’s top seed in the AUSL Championship best-of-three series beginning Saturday, July 25.